I STAND NEXT to Corbin and Chase in the ballroom when I see my sister entering. I can tell from across the room she’s crying.
“What’s wrong?” I ask the moment she rushes over to us.
“We’re leaving,” she barks at Corbin.
“What’s wrong?” he asks her, and she ignores him too.
“I’m fucking leaving. Come with me or don’t.” Spinning around, she goes to storm off, but I grab her arm and yank her back. “Sin—”
“Answer our fucking question right now,” I growl in her face, my fingers tightening on her skin. She looks to Corbin but all he does is cross his arms over his chest, also waiting for an explanation.
I love my sister to death and would do anything for her, but she chose this life with the Lords. She had every chance to run the other way, and she didn’t. Corbin isn’t the guy she thinks he is. He’s a Lord and that will always come first. No matter how much he loves her. The Lords always like to test us with things that we love.
“I found Elli upstairs vomiting,” she finally admits, letting out a long breath.
My brows crease. “She’s sick?”
“She’s been sick,” she snaps, trying to yank her arm free, but I don’t let go. “I think…” She nibbles on her lip. “I think she’s pregnant, but she doesn’t want anyone to know.”
I let go of her arm, dropping mine to my side. She steps into me instead of running off. “If she’s pregnant, then you can choose to marry her, right?” Her blue eyes are big and full of hope. She wants me with Elli as much as Elli does. She wants me to be the better guy and pick her best friend.
“It doesn’t work that way.” Corbin is the one who speaks when I refuse to answer.
Her eyes go to him. “Why not?” she snaps, irritated once again.
“Sin would get to decide if he wants it or not,” Corbin goes on.
Her wide eyes go back to me and she takes a step back. “No. You wouldn’t do that to her,” she says, understanding what her boyfriend means.
“It’s complicated,” Corbin goes on.
I don’t hide anything from him. He may have gone behind my back, but I’ve accepted what he did. He’s still my best friend. I won’t let his love for my sister get in the way.
“Easton,” she speaks softly. “You can’t do that to her.”
“I’m a Lord,” I say. “I can do whatever I want.”
With tears building in her eyes, she looks to Corbin, and when he says nothing, she spins around and rushes out of the ballroom.
“Fuck,” Corbin hisses.
Placing my hands in the pockets of my slacks, I make my way out of the ballroom and upstairs, not even bothering to try to talk to him about what just went down. He can choose to follow Kira or not. Not my relationship, not my problem.
I enter Elli’s room like I own it and see the French doors open to her balcony. She’s standing on it, back to me, forearms on the railing.
Stepping outside, I watch her body stiffen, feeling my presence. “Why are you here?” comes her soft voice. It doesn’t sound mad or curious. Just tired.
“Your mother invited me.”
“Of course, she did.” She sighs, pushing off the railing and turning to face me.
My eyes scan over her puffy cheeks, bloodshot eyes and … they’re dilated. I grind my teeth. “You’re fucked up.” It’s not a question.
She blinks slowly, her pretty eyes heavy.
My eyes roam over the rest of her face and make it to her cheek. Is that a handprint? I step closer, pinning her back into the railing, and reach up to touch her cheek, but she drops her face. “Who the fuck hit you?” I demand.
“Your sister,” she answers, lifting her chin to meet my eyes.
I can’t tell if that’s a lie or not, but my sister wouldn’t hit hard enough to leave that red of a mark. “Elli—”
“Please leave,” she begs.
My eyes search hers and they start to fill with tears. “I’m tired of seeing you.” Her bottom lip begins to tremble. “I’m tired of hating myself because of you. I’m just so tired…” She closes her eyes tightly and fresh tears come pouring down her face. They open and land on mine, pinning me where I stand. “I’m tired of being the whore that no one can love.”
“Elli—”
“My father taught me that life isn’t fair.” She places her hand on my chest, pushing me back, and I allow it. “I’m marrying Chance and I’m going to be a devoted Lady, Sin. Because I’m tired of being your whore. It isn’t worth it.” With that, she walks around me and out of her bedroom.
With shaky hands, I pull my cell out. Something happened. That’s not the same Elli I left unconscious in our bed just a week ago after I spent all weekend with her. No. She was right where I needed her to be. On the edge. She’s jumped off headfirst and I won’t be able to get her back.
I pull up the cameras I have set up in her room. I see her getting ready, standing in front of the mirror. Her door opens and my blood runs cold as Linc enters. I turn up the volume. I watch, my eyes glued to the screen and my hands tightening on my phone to the point I might break it while he threatens her…
With me.
She opens her mouth for him because of me.
He fucking uses her because of me.
I’m shaking when he leaves her and she runs to the bathroom getting sick. I see my sister enter and I don’t even bother watching. She lied like I knew she had. I watched him hit her twice. One when she refused to give him what he wanted and the second time when she was on her knees sucking his cock. My sister might have done it as well, but she never mentioned Lincoln in her room, and I know why.
Pocketing my cell, I run down the stairs. “Elli?” I shout her name. The ballroom is now full of guests mingling around. She didn’t even take the time to redo her makeup. She just washed it off completely and left her hair down. “Elli, I need to talk to you.” I step forward.
“That’s not happening.” Linc steps into me.
I fist my hands; I want to rip his fucking head off, but I can’t. Too many eyes on us, watching. This was a test. I know that now and I can’t fail. I’ll lose her for good. Forever. My entire body is fucking vibrating I’m so furious. Hot fire touching my skin, and I’m practically panting.
“I’ll handle this.” Chance places his hands on Lincoln’s chest and he steps back.
“Take it outside,” Linc orders Chance. I get one last look of Elli standing in a sea full of people and I realize just how unsafe she is. No one here will protect her. Not like I will.
“Come on,” Chance growls and I let him drag me out of the room, through the house, and out the double doors onto the front porch before I get myself killed. If that happens, there’s no telling what they will do to her. “What the fuck, man?” he demands softly, his eyes scanning the property. “You trying to fuck shit up?”
I pull out my cell and go to the footage, turning up the volume and hold it out to him. My heart is hammering in my chest. I start to pace, my hands gripping my hair. I should have known the moment I realized she had taken drugs. It’s her escape. Her way of coping with performing actions that she knows are wrong.
“Fuck.” He runs a hand through his hair, watching wide-eyed. His jaw sharpening when he hears what Linc tells her. After he’s done and it gets to the end, he hands it back to me. I pocket the phone with shaking hands. Chance’s arms fall to his sides. “I’m sorry, man—”
I punch him in the face, knocking him back.
“Jesus, Sin—”
I grab his tuxedo and yank him to me, his chest bumping into mine. “Anyone, and I mean any-fucking-one touches her again and I don’t give a fuck where we are or who’s watching, they’re dead.”
“I didn’t know he was going to do that,” he snaps in my face, a steady flow of blood running from his busted nose.
“And after I kill him, you’ll be next,” I promise, shoving Chance away from me. “Now get your ass back in there, and don’t leave her fucking side.” I point at the house.
“Calm down, man.” He raises his hands, quickly looking around, but everyone is inside. The party has already started. “I’m as pissed off as you are, but we can’t do anything yet.”
I know that but it doesn’t mean I like it. “Keep your eyes on my wife. If anything happens to her, I’ll dig them out of your fucking head with a butter knife,” I threaten.
I walk across the circle drive, over to where they have valet set up, and he pulls my keys to go get my car. I yank them from his hand and stomp my way to where it’s parked. Dropping into my car, my phone rings.
“Easton.” My father’s voice fills my car before I hear a door open and close as he hides away from the crowd inside of the house. “What the fuck just happened? Chance just returned with a bloody nose.”
“It’s nothing,” I say through gritted teeth.
“That was not nothing. Where the fuck are you? Amelia and her parents are looking for you.”
“I had to leave.”
He sighs. “Son—”
I hang up and drop my phone in my lap. My blood is boiling, I can’t stop shaking. He threatened my status with the Lords, and she did whatever he wanted. I hate that. She shouldn’t be protecting me. It should be the other way around. But the Lords have my arms tied. She’d hate herself more than she already does if she knew the very people she saved me from, are the same ones keeping me from her.
I knew Lincoln would try something, but I figured he’d at least wait until after their wedding. To use me against her makes my chest tighten. No wonder she hates me. She let him have something that wasn’t his. She protected me like I have her all these years. But what did it cost her? Her sanity. She’s no longer the same. James toyed with her. Made her beg to be fucked. Linc will make her beg him to stop, which he won’t do. He lied to her, my father and hers never had an agreement for us to marry. It’s just another way to hurt her. Make her feel like she was close to getting what she wanted, but he had the power to take it away.
My phone rings again but I press decline when I see it’s my father. I have nothing to say to him right now. I squeal out of the driveway. I make my way down the dirt road parallel to the house where I used to hide on my bike when I would sneak in to see her, and pull my cell out. I’m watching her stand next to Chance in the ballroom. No smile on her face. She doesn’t even look fucked up, just blank. She’s no longer my little demon. She’s Ellington Asher, the girl they wanted to break. The girl who has no idea just how powerful she can be.
I’m her only hope.
_______________
I PULL UP at Blackout and rush into the club and up to Tyson’s office.
“Call them back.” I barge through the door, not even bothering to knock.
He looks up at me from behind his desk.
“Tell them I want another meeting,” I demand.
“Sin, the Spade brothers don’t work like that. They may be Lords but it’s not the same as you and me.”
“You don’t answer to the Lords,” I remind him. I’m not going to pretend to understand what the fuck the Spade brothers actually do for the Lords, and I couldn’t care less.
He fists his hands. “You’re born a Lord; you die a Lord.” Growling, he adds, “No one is untouchable when it comes to taking their oath.” Running a hand through his hair, he sighs. “You’ll just be wasting our time. They told you no…”
“There’s a woman,” I interrupt him.
Leaning back in his chair, he glares at me. His eyes give him away. I didn’t tell him her name, or any-fucking-thing about this bitch, but he knows exactly who she is and that she’s important to them.
“Maybe we can find her? Trade her or something.”
He gives a rough laugh. “Trade her? You understand that if you could locate her, and hand her over, you’d be no better than Linc.”
I snort as I turn from his desk and begin to pace. That burning sensation still crawling all over my skin. I could kill a hundred men right now with my bare hands. I wish I wouldn’t have killed David. He’d be a good candidate to torture right now.
“I’m serious, Sin. You’d be throwing this girl to a pack of wolves. They would rip her apart piece by piece. She is the reason they are the way they are.”
He talks as if I know what he means. I don’t and, again, I don’t care. Walking back over to his desk, I slam my hands down on it, making his eyes narrow on mine. I’ve never known Tyson to be soft. He’s ruthless, a fucking legend to all of us. “Afraid I’ll never forgive myself?”
He chuckles at that as if it was a stupid thought. “Forgiveness doesn’t exist in our world.”
Maybe he feels sorry for the girl because he thinks she’s an innocent. His chosen changed him. Tyson’s path as a Lord was going to make him a billionaire. A respected and powerful CEO with the perfect family that would have included kids and a dog. He gave it all up when his chosen was killed. She was slaughtered for something she didn’t do. He loved her. As much as a Lord can love a woman anyway. It put her in harm’s way, and she paid the ultimate price.
I won’t allow that to happen to Elli. I’ll burn this motherfucking world down before I let a man take her from me. I’ll love her no matter how I get her back, broken or not.
“I don’t give a fuck about her.” I finally answer his previous question regarding the woman. Let the wolves have her. If it means I can have my little demon back, then so be it. I’m willing to spill blood, even if it’s not mine. No one ever cared about Elli, so why should I care about some bitch that I don’t even know?
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Ty—”
“She’s long gone, Sin. You won’t find her.”
Fuck! I fall onto the couch and lean back, my hands covering my face. I’m running out of options. Out of time. I know Elli. She’s going to stay fucked up twenty-four seven. She’ll die of an overdose eventually. By accident or on purpose, won’t matter.
“Go home, Sin,” he dismisses me. “Get some rest and think twice before you get irrational over pussy.”
His cell rings and I stand, about to walk out, when he gets my attention by lifting his finger his to lips to signal for me to be quiet. I frown but nod.
Answering his phone, he places the call on speaker. “Hello?”
“Tyson,” the guy speaks. “Something has been brought to our attention.” I recognize the voice. It’s one of the Spade brothers, but I’m not sure which one. My one and only meeting with them was very short.
“And you’re calling me why?” Tyson asks, crossing his arms over his chest.
“The kid you came in with the other day.”
“What about him?” he goes on.
“Bring him over tomorrow. We’d like to see him.” The guy hangs up.
Tyson locks his cell before looking up at me. “Looks like you’ve got one more chance.”
ELLINGTON
I STAND IN the ballroom, my eyes on a man who stands at the opposite end. I know him. I’ve seen him before. He came over to my house. He brought us papers to sign when Sin said he bought the house for us. I should go over there and ask him why he did that when it was a lie. Why go through that much trouble? But my feet are planted where I stand. His blue eyes are on mine, staring at me. He doesn’t care that I’ve caught him. Lifting a champagne flute to his lips, he takes a sip.
A hand grabs my arm and I’m pulled out of the ballroom. My feet are unable to keep up and I trip but thankfully don’t fall on my face. “Christ, you’re on drugs. Again.” It’s Lincoln. “Goddamn it, Elli. Can’t you stay clean for a day?”
I groan as he brings me to a stop, spinning me to face him. “What the fuck did you say?” he demands in my face.
I’m not even here. The Molly has kicked in and I’m drinking. I no longer taste him in my mouth. I could be drooling for all I know.
“Hmm? What did you say to Sin?”
I blink, my eyelids heavy, making everything kinda blurry.
He raises his hand to slap me, but it stops in midair. “Just what do you think you’re doing?” Chance growls.
I blink again, realizing that Chance’s hand is wrapped around Lincoln’s wrist, stopping him from hitting me. I didn’t even flinch, the thought of pain makes my nipples harden. I want to feel something. I wish Sin were here to hurt me. To make me beg him to push me further than my body wants to go.
Linc yanks it free and steps back. “I’m having a conversation with my stepdaughter.”
Bile rises at those words. While wallowing in my own self-pity, I forgot that he’s married to my mother. I’ve officially fucked two of my mother’s husbands—while they were married to her. I’m a horrible person.
“Why is she fucked up?” Chance asks Linc.
He snorts. “Because she’s a fucking druggie. You knew this. It’s what she does.”
Chance turns to face me and cups my cheeks. I lean into his cool hands. They feel so good. “Are you okay?” he asks.
A laugh bubbles up and I can’t help but let it out, making my body shake.
“Elli?” Chance frowns, shaking me a little.
“She’s fine,” Linc snaps.
Chance lets go of my face and walks me over to a chair, pushing me down into it, then he turns to his uncle. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Your wife is here, for fuck’s sake.” I tilt my head, their conversation confusing me. She is? I haven’t even seen my mother tonight. This party may be for me and Chance, but she threw it for herself. It’s a way for her to show off that I’m not a complete waste of space in her life. Becoming a Lady is a big thing in our world. Not sure when becoming a slave was something to be proud of.
Linc straightens his shoulders. “We had a deal—”
“Yes, I know what he agreed on,” Chance snaps, interrupting him. “But she’s not my wife yet. So keep your hands to yourself until then.”
Lincoln’s eyes narrow on me and I smile at him. At least I think I am. My lips are numb.
“Sin knew something—”
“Sin is watching her every fucking move,” Chance goes on, taking a step back and running a hand through his dark hair. Not sure if he’s aggravated at me or his uncle. “Jesus, you’re a grown-ass man. You once went three years without pussy. Keep it in your pants for another week before you ruin this for us both.”
Lincoln fixes his collar and glares at me while he speaks to Chance. “I want her on the wedding night.”
Chance lets out a huff.
“I’m serious, Becks. It’s not like she’s a fucking virgin and you’ll be the first one there. I want her after the wedding. Hell, you can be there and watch, but I want to fuck her before you do. I’ve earned that.”
Chance nods. “Yeah, you’re right. Fine. She’s yours first, the night of the wedding.”
Linc pushes past him and walks toward me. Bending over, he grips my chin, forcing me to look at him from where I sit. “Did you hear that, Elli? I told you I’d get my fair share of you.”
“You’ll never be as good as Sin.” I’m not sure why I said it, but I couldn’t stop the words if I wanted to. I’m going to marry Chance, and he’s going to let my stepfather fuck me along with who knows who, but they’ll never be Sin. And I’ll remind them of that any chance I get. He may have never loved me, but he knew exactly what I wanted when I needed it.
I expect Lincoln to get mad but instead he just smiles and shoves my face away, pushing me back into the chair. “You may not be a virgin, but you will bleed for me on your wedding night when I cut his fucking name off your back. I’ll mail it to him in a baggie. It’ll be my wedding gift to him after he makes Amelia his wife.”
Not sure why Linc would do that, Sin won’t give a fuck about it. But I’m not going to tell him that. Lincoln can figure it out on his own.
